This invention relates generally to the architecture of arrays of semiconductor memory cells, and, more specifically, to non-volatile memory system arrays. As a highly useful application, the architecture is utilized in and tailored to arrays of flash EEPROM (Electrically Erasable and Programmable Read-Only Memory) cells.
Non-volatile memory arrays take many forms and utilize various technologies. Non-volatile memory systems in the form of small cards have recently become quite popular and commercially successful. The technology most commonly utilized in such memory cards is the flash EEPROM technology. One specific flash EEPROM implementation includes an array of cells having a "split-channel" (or "split-gate") between source and drain diffusions. The floating gate of the cell is positioned over one portion of the channel and the word line (also referred to as a control gate) is positioned over the other channel portion as well as the floating gate. This effectively forms a cell with two transistors in series, one (the memory transistor) with a combination of the amount of charge on the floating gate and the voltage on the word line controlling the amount of current that can flow through its portion of the channel, and the other (the select transistor) having the word line alone serving as its gate. The word line extends over a row of floating gates. Examples of such cells, their uses in memory systems and methods of manufacturing them are given in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,070,032, 5,095,344, 5,315,541, 5,343,063, and 5,661,053, and in copending U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 09/239,073, filed Jan. 27, 1999, which patents and application are incorporated herein by this reference.
A modification of this split-channel flash EEPROM cell adds a steering gate positioned between the floating gate and the word line. Each steering gate of an array extends over one column of floating gates, perpendicular to the word line. The effect is to relieve the word line from having to perform two functions at the same time when reading or programming a selected cell. Those two functions are (1) to serve as a gate of a select transistor, thus requiring a proper voltage to turn the select transistor on and off, and (2) to drive the voltage of the floating gate to a desired level through an electric field (capacitive) coupling between the word line and the floating gate. It is often difficult to perform both of these functions in an optimum manner with a single voltage. With the addition of the steering gate, the word line need only perform function (1), while the added steering gate performs function (2). The use of steering gates in a flash EEPROM array is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,313,421, which patent is incorporated herein by this reference.
In this type of cell array, the floating gate of a cell is programmed by injecting electrons from the substrate to the floating gate. This is accomplished by having the proper doping in the channel region and applying the proper voltages to the source, drain and remaining gate(s). So called "source side" injection is preferred, being described in the foregoing U.S. Pat. No. 5,313,421.
In large arrays, it is often desirable to be able to isolate segments of the array from each other. Segmentation reduces the capacitance of long conductors and diffusions by reducing their lengths, thus increasing the speed of operation of the array. Further, the likelihood of disturbing the programmed state of cells is reduced if a portion of the array containing cells being programmed, read or erased is isolated from the rest of the array. Segmentation also allows defective portions of an array to be isolated. Column segmentation of bit line diffusions is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,315,541, which patent is incorporated herein by this reference.
Two techniques of removing charge from floating gates to erase memory cells are used in both of the two types of memory cell arrays described above. One is to erase to the substrate by applying appropriate voltages to the source, drain and other gate(s) to cause electrons to tunnel through a portion of a dielectric layer between the floating gate and the substrate. The other erase technique is to transfer electrons from the floating gate to another gate through a tunnel dielectric layer positioned between them. In the first type of cell described above, a third erase gate is provided for that purpose. In the second type of cell described above, which already has three gates because of the use of a steering gate, the floating gate is erased to the word line, without the necessity to add a fourth gate. Although this later technique adds back a second function to be performed by the word line, these functions are performed at different times, thus avoiding the necessity of making a compromise because of the two functions. When either erase technique is utilized, a large number of memory cells are grouped together for simultaneously erasure, in a "flash." In one approach, the group includes enough memory cells to store the amount of user data stored in a disk sector, namely 512 bytes, plus some overhead data. In another approach, each group contains enough cells to hold several thousand bytes of user data, equal to many disk sector's worth of data. Multi-block erasure, defect management and other flash EEPROM system features are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,297,148, which patent is incorporated herein by this reference.
As in most all integrated circuit applications, the pressure to shrink the silicon substrate area required to implement some integrated circuit function also exists with flash EEPROM systems. It is continually desired to increase the amount of digital data that can be stored in a given area of a silicon substrate, in order to increase the storage capacity of a given size memory card and other types packages, or to both increase capacity and decrease size. One way to increase the storage density of data is to store more than one bit of data per memory cell. This is accomplished by dividing a window of a floating gate charge level voltage range into more than two states. The use of four such states allows each cell to store two bits of data, eight states stores three bits of data per cell, and so on. A multiple state flash EEPROM structure and operation is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,043,940 and 5,172,338, which patents are incorporated herein by this reference.
Increased data density can also be achieved by reducing the physical size of the memory cells and/or the overall array. Shrinking the size of integrated circuits is commonly performed for all types of circuits as processing techniques improve over time to permit implementing smaller feature sizes. But there are usually limits of how far a given circuit layout can be shrunk in this manner since there is often at least one feature that is limited as to how much it can be shrunk, thus limiting the amount that the overall layout can be shrunk. When this happens, designers will turn to a new or different layout or architecture of the circuit being implemented in order to reduce the amount of silicon area required to perform its functions. The shrinking of the above-described flash EEPROM integrated circuit systems can reach similar limits.
A flash EEPROM system having an array of dual floating gate memory cells along with the storage of multiple states on each floating gate significantly increases the data storage density of the array. Two floating gates are included over the channel of each cell between its source and drain diffusions with a select transistor in between them. A steering gate is included along each column of floating gates and a word line is provided thereover along each row of floating gates. When accessing a given floating gate for reading or programming, the steering gate over the other floating gate of the cell containing the floating gate of interest is raised high to turn on the channel under the other floating gate no matter what charge level exists on it. This effectively eliminates the other floating gate as a factor in reading or programming the floating gate of interest in the same memory cell. For example, the amount of current flowing through the cell, which can be used to read its state, is then a function of the amount of charge on the floating gate of interest but not of the other floating gate in the same cell. This cell array architecture and operating techniques are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,712,180 and copending application Ser. No. 08/910,947, filed Aug. 7, 1997, which patent and application are incorporated herein by this reference. Efforts continue to design memory cell arrays having an increased data storage density and that can be also be made smaller as further improvements in processing technology become available.